Schweinfurt seventh grade students make math, colors add up

By Jazmyne Howard, Schweinfurt Middle/ High SchoolMarch 14, 2014

Schweinfurt seventh students make math, colors add up
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

SCHWEINFURT, Germany (March 14, 2014) -- Students here recently completed a project combining mathematics and art with colorful results.

Laura Masci, the Spanish and art teacher at Schweinfurt Middle/High School, guided her art class through the color wheel lesson. In art, the color wheel is a graphic representation of color hues organized in wedges around a circle that show the relationships between primary colors, secondary colors and complementary colors.

The students learned to use a protractor to measure the distance between the required 12 wedges and a compass to draw 360 degrees. They also learned to calculate the values, shades and tints of color before applying paintbrush to paper.

"We used a protractor to start off the project, and then we had to split the circle into 30 degree angles after drawing our full 360-degree circle," said Abigail Miller, SMHS student. "We also used a compass to actually draw the circle full of the 12 wedges that were 30 degrees."

Masci offered her thoughts on how well the students learned the concepts and applied them to the final project.

"I wasn't sure if they would understand angles and circles because they haven't had geometry yet, but in the context of art they were able to understand it," said Masci. "Abby showed leadership in her ability to re-teach the concept while the other students were excited to get the foundation of their color wheel project just right."

All the students demonstrated their commitment to deliver the best final project possible. The class then participated in a critique to encourage collaboration.

[Editor's note: Jazmyne Howard is a senior at Schweinfurt Middle/High School and contributor to TeamSchweinfurt.com.]

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